Monday, April 12, 2010

Hang Me Out to Dry

I know I talk about laundry a lot but it's something that everyone has to do. It takes up everyone's time and if there are better, greener, simpler ways to do it, I'm all for it! For the past month, I have hung out every load of laundry on my makeshift clothesline. If I ran out of space, I either draped the remaining items over kitchen chairs and barstools, or simply waited until there was space to hang them up. I have not used my dryer at all. Not only is hanging your laundry domestically satisfying (I coined that phrase myself!) it's good for the planet and good for your wallet. Your wallet? Yes my friends. You may think that not running your dryer for a month wouldn't make a significant difference in your electric bill. But....BEHOLD! This months electric bill!!

The underlined number is what I paid last month. The circled number is what I owe this month. I have not changed anything other than not using my dryer. That's $28.24 in monthly savings! Put that in your pipe and smoke it! And since I live in the desert, I can hang my clothes out year round bringing my yearly savings to $338.88. If that's not incentive enough to hang out your laundry, I don't know what is! But just in case you needed a little prodding, here are the top 10 reasons to line dry your clothes, courtesy of the book Simple Country Wisdom.

Last quarters electric bill $568 Aussie Dollars mmm excessive - 17year old son home hot weather - air con on all the time. This Quarter $198.00 mmm turned the air con on only enough to make life comfortable, off at night and became godzilla as far as lights and power points were concerned. Family could not believe their eyes. Might be time to install a wood fire as well. much better heat and drying effect in the house for the clothes as well. Have been a advocat for homemaking all my llife which makes me one of the odd ones around it seemed until I started reading blogs. Hey they are more out there like me. Thanks for your blog have subscribed to your feeds and look forward to following your journey. Jenny G Australia